Designing for impact: the next stage for climate assemblies| Blog by Graham Smith
If the recent COP26 tells us anything, it’s that different ways of making hard decisions about our shared futures are needed. Too often critical decisions are made through last minute compromises, hammered out amongst small groups of negotiators behind closed doors,...
Beyond COP26: what next on Scotland’s sustainable development journey? | Blog by Paul Bradley
Living in Glasgow has been a somewhat surreal experience in recent weeks. The sounds of megaphones, police horses, and helicopters have been prominent in daily life. World leaders have come and gone, having spent an evening at my local museum. Hundreds of police lined...
Reforming the civil service—no more short-term incentives or silo thinking?
Michael Gove, the Duchy of Lancaster, gave a thoughtful and thought-provoking Ditchley Annual Lecture on 27th June about the need to change how policy making is done in order to respond to today’s challenges. This statement, alongside discussions of the future of the...
Leaders call on Prime Minister to create socially just and green recovery from Covid-19
FDSD, together with over 100 companies, universities, charities and trade associations, signed a letter to the UK Prime Minister urging that the recovery from COVID-19 use the Sustainable Development Goals to help “consolidate and future-proof these plans”. It argues...
FDSD welcomes UK Climate Assembly
FDSD has long supported the wider use of participatory and deliberative processes such as citizens’ assemblies in bringing the voice of citizens into political decision making. We are therefore delighted that the first weekend of the UK Climate Assembly has been a...
Shaping the campaign for a UK Future Generations Act
FDSD was delighted to host a workshop at the University of Westminster to develop the campaign for the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act being led by Lord Bird. The event attracted representatives from around 30 organisations, including UK Student Climate Network,...
Activism in a new climate | Conference and theatre, Manchester 29 Apr 2020
Appeals for people to act now in response to the climate emergency surround us. Many of them focus on the responsibility of the individual to act: to eat less meat, to drive less, to fly less. Does this focus on the role of individuals underestimate the challenge of...
#TODAYFORTOMORROW | Lord Bird introduces Future Generations Bill
Our politics is too short-term. Our democracy seems unable to deal with long-term challenges. But change is at hand. With support from FDSD and other partners, The Big Issue founder, Lord Bird, has introduced the Future Generations Bill in the UK Parliament, and is...
Future Generations Podcast | Reasons to be Cheerful with FDSD trustee Andrea Westall
“When they go short-term, we go long-term…” FDSD trustee Andrea Westall recently joined Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd for their Reasons to be Cheerful Podcast, to discuss the urgent need for representation of future generations in today’s politics....
Promoting public involvement in Wales | Blog by Bethan Smith
Bethan Smith is Goal Convenor for Involvement, Office for the Future Generations Commissioner, Wales. . . . Through the 2015 Well-being of Future Generations Act, all devolved public bodies in Wales are legally required to put sustainable development first; that is,...
With democracy becoming an endangered species, is sustainability in peril? | A reflection by Sara Parkin, November 2018
In 2008, Sara Parkin wrote a provocation for the FDSD: “Are Political Parties getting in the way of the sort of collaborative democracy we need to tackle sustainability? If so, what can we do about it?” Ten years later, she revisits her thinking, “in the...
Why we need a Committee for Future Generations in the House of Lords | Blog by Graham Smith
The Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development has proposed that the House of Lords establish a Committee for Future Generations to review legislation. It is hoped that such a body would reduce the short-termism that can creep into legislative and executive...
Bringing Future Generations into Today’s Politics | A workshop summary by Andrea Westall
On 19th April 2018, FDSD jointly held an event with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries to ask “Will the Future Blame Us?” and how do we bring future generations into today’s politics. The audience, a mix of actuaries, academics, policy-makers and civil society,...
FDSD calls for a Committee for Future Generations in the House of Lords
For the first time in 25 years, the House of Lords Liaison Committee is reviewing the structure and function of committees in the second chamber. FDSD is making the most of the opportunity to propose a new Committee for Future Generations to bring long-term...
All parties for tomorrow: A new APPG for Future Generations
A new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Future Generations, launched in January 2018, aims to raise the profile of future generations amongst UK parliamentarians and others. Chaired by Daniel Zeichner, MP, the new group will “raise awareness of...
Partnership and participation: Welsh plans reflect FDSD priorities
Sophie Howe, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, has published her Strategic Plan to cover the period 2017-2023. We are delighted to find that we are on the same wavelength: the plan explicitly highlights the importance of effective partnerships and...
Will the Future Blame Us? Bringing Future Generations into Today’s Politics | London, 19 April 2018
The FDSD and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries are delighted to invite you to a joint evening event on 19 April 2018 in London. Bringing together experts from the policymaking community with academics and those from the actuarial profession and elsewhere...
New APPG for Cross-Party Dialogue on Future Generations
An All-Parliamentary Group for Future Generations has just been set up in the House of Commons with the aim to “raise the profile of issues affecting future generations in Parliament and explore ways to institutionalise representation of future generations.” It is...
Citizens, participation and the economy | Interim report from the RSA Citizen’s Economic Council
There are many reasons why more democratic and deliberative approaches to economics are necessary and valuable: shaping better and more informed economic decisions, promoting transparency over economic priorities, and strengthening the quality of democracy and public...Sign up for newsletter
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